Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson

Chapters XXXI–XXXIV

Key Facts

1.

Fifteen
men on the dead man’s chest—
Yo-ho-ho, and
a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done
for the rest—
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

This pirate’s ditty, first sung in Chapter
I and recalled many times afterward, remains one of the best-known
legacies of Treasure Island. The poem encapsulates
drink, death, and wickedness, which are inextricably linked to the
pirates, and which give them an aura of wild glamour. The “bottle
of rum” recalls the almost constant state of drunkenness of Silver’s
ragged brigade. This reference to alcohol is also connected to idea
of the “dead man,” as the pirates’ drunkenness results in mishaps,
losses, and deaths, and is perhaps responsible for their ultimate
failure.

The “dead man’s chest” symbolically refers to both Billy
Bones’s sea chest and Flint’s hidden treasure. The pirates’ song
associates the treasure chest with a dead man rather than a living
one, suggesting that the pirates are unconsciously aware that their
mission will end in death and failure. In a sense, they are singing
of their own downfall, almost displaying a death drive. The image
of the dead man’s chest also refers to the way in which greed leads
to a man’s loss of soul and also recalls the ultimate futility of
finding material treasure, as all humans eventually die in the end.

2.

“I
have only one thing to say to you, sir … if you keep on drinking
rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!”

These words, which Dr. Livesey addresses
to Billy Bones in Chapter I, emphasize the conflict between the
civilized world and the lawless criminal world in Treasure
Island. Billy has usurped power for himself, as he refuses
to pay his bills and assumes that everyone will immediately fall
silent whenever he slaps the dining-room table. Billy’s power is,
in fact, quite real: Jim’s innkeeper father is too scared of Billy
to demand payment, and everyone does stop talking when the seaman
slaps the table. Though Billy is a stranger in the area, shows no
special virtues, and has no political or financial power, he nonetheless
holds an extraordinary and mysterious power over everyone. This
power, which Long John Silver also displays, fascinates Jim. Power
of this sort is an insult to the civilized world, as it offends
the values of order, responsibility, and propriety. The practical
Dr. Livesey, who embodies the traditional, ordered world, predicts
that the rum will soon kill Billy and declares that the pirates
are scoundrels. Livesey judges the pirates through the lens of his
own world and its accompanying values. However, by the end of the
novel, we learn that both the doctor’s world and the pirates’ world
are flawed, and that both worlds can inspire and destroy.

3.

“Well,
squire … I don’t put much faith in your discoveries, as a general
thing; but I will say this, John Silver suits me.”

Dr. Livesey delivers these remarks to
Squire Trelawney at the end of Chapter VIII, when the men first
meet the crew that will accompany them to Treasure Island. This
quotation raises the issue of judgment of another person’s character.
First, Livesey’s skepticism about Trelawney’s prudence suggests
that the squire’s knowledge of human affairs might be less reliable
than that of the practical man of science. We later verify this
hypothesis when we discover that the squire has been tricked into
manning his ship with a band of pirates; his judgment is indeed
unsound. Yet Long John Silver tricks even the wise Dr. Livesey.
Though in reality the ringleader of the pirates, Silver is a man
whom Livesey trusts instinctively. The doctor’s trust suggests that
Silver has extraordinary powers of deception, but also that
there is something genuinely likable about the pirate. Even though Silver
is a miscreant, he is charismatic and repeatedly earns the respect of
others. Indeed, Silver wins Jim’s affection and admiration by the
end of the adventure, and he acts like a gentleman on several occasions. Livesey
and Trelawney are deceived by Silver because he is such a contradictory
character, not fully good but not fully evil either.

4.

I
was no sooner certain of this than I began to feel sick, faint, and
terrified. The hot blood was running over my back and chest. The
dirk, where it had pinned my shoulder to the mast, seemed to burn
like a hot iron; yet it was not so much these real sufferings that
distressed me ... it was the horror I had upon my mind of falling
from the cross-trees into that still green water beside the body
of the coxswain. I clung with both hands till my nails ached, and
I shut my eyes as if to cover up the peril. Gradually my mind came
back again, my pulses quieted down to a more natural time, and I
was once more in possession of myself.

Jim has these thoughts at the beginning
of Chapter XXVII, when he realizes that he has killed Israel Hands,
the pirate who has wounded Jim with his dagger. This passage reveals
Jim’s maturity and his developing sense of self. The pirates are
always drunken, rowdy, and impetuous, and demonstrate little or
no ability to manage the situations or circumstances that surround
them. Jim, conversely, almost immediately after the fight is over,
Jim shows his developing ability to emerge from a state of passionate
agitation to a state of control. Jim takes possession of himself
in a mature and responsible fashion, and then takes control of the
ship and names himself captain. The difference between Jim and Israel
Hands represents the difference between those who can take care
of themselves and those who cannot. Israel is still drunk when he
dies, while Jim is in full possession of his mind and senses.

The passage also shows the importance of Jim’s newfound
sense of personal identity. The physical suffering Jim experiences
is not as troubling as the prospect of being next to Israel Hands
in the water. Jim cannot bear the thought of being associated with
a pirate, a person who is not in control of his own body and mind.
Jim clearly defines himself as separate from a pirate or criminal—he
identifies himself as an honest young man. Jim’s identity matters
more to him than even physical pain, suggesting that he is developing
a sense of identity, confidence, and maturity.

5.

The
bar silver and the arms still lie, for all that I know, where Flint
buried them; and certainly they shall lie there for me. Oxen and
wain-ropes would not bring me back again to that accursed island;
and the worst dreams that ever I have are when I hear the surf booming
about its coasts, or start upright in bed, with the sharp voice
of Captain Flint still ringing in my ears: ‘Pieces of eight! pieces
of eight!’

These final lines of the novel summarize
Jim’s feelings about his adventure. Ironically, one of the results
of Jim’s treasure hunt is that he learns he does not actually want
the treasure, and that he is happy to leave the silver buried on
the island. Similarly, at the end of the novel, Jim also realizes
that he does not truly want adventure. The negative tone with which
he closes his account seems out of place, as in the end everything
has worked out well for him: Jim is safely back home, his friends
have survived, and he presumably possesses a fair share of the pirates’
loot as reward. Yet Jim calls the island “accursed,” and he is plagued
by nightmares of treasure and Silver’s screeching parrot.

Jim’s continuing dreams signify that his adventure is
still with him, for better or for worse, and that his experience
with the pirates has had an indelible impact on his life. However,
it also appears that the tragedies of the adventure—the greed and
death—still trouble him. Though Captain Flint is long dead and buried,
and Jim is back in the relative safety of the civilized world, he
still feels the influence and temptation of the pirates’ underworld.
Jim is having trouble adjusting to the upright, civilized world
and the fact that it completely rejects the darker, more lawless
world of the pirates. That a pirate literally has the last words
in the novel (the parrot’s cry of “pieces of eight!”) shows that
the pirates, and the life and values they represent, will always
haunt Jim and the civilized world.